Posted on 08/08/2005 8:38:32 PM PDT by kristinn
Cindy Sheehan, who is protesting the Iraq war by staging a vigil in Crawford, Texas demanding to have a meeting with President Bush to have him explain why her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in the war last year is reported to have made recent pronouncements that she is refusing to pay her taxes because of her son's death in the war.
In a Providence Journal article about an appearance by Sheehan at a Rhode Island church published July 27, 2005, reporter Elizabeth Gudrais wrote:
For one thing, Sheehan said, she has stopped paying her taxes. "I didn't pay my taxes for 2004," she said. When a letter arrives declaring her payment delinquent, she said, "I'll say no -- I don't owe you a penny. We'll see what they do to me."
Last Friday, Sheehan gave a speech in Dallas, Texas at the Veterans for Peace conference. According to a published transcript, Sheehan said the following:
Another thing that I’m doing is - - my son was killed in 2004, so I’m not paying my taxes for 2004. If I get a letter from the IRS, I’m gonna say, you know what, this war is illegal; this is why this war is illegal. This war is immoral; this is why this war is immoral. You killed my son for this. I don’t owe you anything. And if I live to be a million, I won’t owe you a penny.
And I want them to come after me, because unlike what you’ve been doing with the war resistance, I want to put this frickin’ war on trial. And I want to say, “You give me my son, and I’ll pay your taxes.”
Also in the VFP speech, Sheehan is quoted as describing her state of mind as being quite dangerous:
So anyway that filth-spewer and warmonger, George Bush was speaking after the tragedy of the marines in Ohio, he said a couple things that outraged me. Seriously outraged me. And I know I don’t look like I’m outraged, I’m always so calm and everything, that’s because if I started hitting something, I wouldn’t stop ‘til it was dead. So I can’t even start, cause I know how dangerous that would be, but George Bush was talking, and he never mentioned the terrible incident of those marines, but he did say, that the families of the ones who have been killed can rest assured that their loved ones died for a noble cause.
Since beginning her roadside vigil about five miles from the President's ranch on Saturday, Sheehan has claimed she has been threatened by the Secret Service with being run over by speeding cars, and with being threatened with arrest by state officials for being a national security threat.
Sheehan has met once with President Bush, in June of last year at Ft. Lewis, Wash. She has given conflicting accounts of that meeting.
Last Saturday, two high level officials with the Bush administration met with her at her roadside vigil to hear her grievances.
Sheehan was not satisfied and has promised to stay in Crawford until she meets with the President. She says she'll follow him back to Washington, D.C. if he completes his August vacation without meeting her.
Link to copy of Providence journal article.
Link to transcript of VFP speech (caution, goes to DU.)
Out of 9 of my nephews 6 have served in the military, two in Iraq, who are thankfully home now. My oldest brother served in Vietnam, and my second oldest brother served during the first Gulf war, but wasn't called to Iraq. Were we anxious that they might not come home? Of course! If they had died, would we use that to spread lies about our government and the President? Not a chance.
I mourn the loss of every brave soldier in Iraq. I pray for them and their families. I am having a hard time praying for this woman who is using her son's death in this way.
The key thing here is that she had already met the President, back just after her son was lost, and her story then was much different than now.
Clearly, someone has worked on her mind to leverage her grief to their agenda. Of course this is wrong and sick.
The larger point here, though, is all about the personal grief of one mother for her lost son as compared to the national grief of lost soldiers for the greater cause.
There is nothing, and I really mean *nothing* about war losses that will ever make sense to those who suffer the personal loss. Ask the mother of someone lost at D-Day on Normandy whether they are glad they lost their son for a good cause. Nothing will ever make them "glad". They might after many years finally see their loss from a longer perspective, but none of this would have made the least bit of sense or provided the least bit of consolation on the day that the telegram arrived.
Personal losses will always overwhelm and we are merely stupid if we think there is anything we can say that will make it make sense to them.
This is not to say that it is in any way wrong when from time to time nations must make these sorts of choices. When nations make the decision to go to war, we are acknowledging and agreeing to these losses and the grief inflicted on the innocent and uninvolved.
Because, while it may never make sense to the mother losing a son, it is in the name of the many more sons who the nation hopes never to have to send that the deed is done.
This woman is having a breakdown, can't her family help her? She's got other kids too, what do they think of their mom camping out in Texas, and why is the Secret Service letting this go on like this?
Stephen Hadley and Joe Hagin went out and talked to her the other day, and she blew them off and called them liars. I think she is going to have to wear herself out with her anger and blathering talk before she will shut up and go home, and if she pushes her threats against GWB too far, she probably will be jailed or committed for psychiatric evaluation.
So true!
Good points
Sheehan has vowed not to move.
I don't think she'd blow herself up to get Bush, but I can see her trying to fling herself out on the road to block his motorcade.
MSM reminds me of an unruly crowd below a distraught human atop a building threatening to jump. The unruly crowd chants "jump,jump,jump" just to see the gore. I would hate to be a lefty reporter on judgment day.
Laura Bush? This Sheehan woman must be kept away from the entire Bush family. She might well turn violent next.
Well said.
What does her husband have to say? Is he not paying his taxes too?
I agree.
"that’s because if I started hitting something, I wouldn’t stop ‘til it was dead. So I can’t even start, cause I know how dangerous that would be,".
Talk about a mental case. Someone in her family needs to have her put away in a nice home.
the inland revenue service thank god i live on the coast
She is in full crackup mode. It will get wilder and wilder as the days go on, unless some of her loved ones talk her down.
A shame.
I agree.
In a sense, that's what she's in the process of doing right now.
As to who lit the "fuse"...
"I can see her trying to fling herself out on the road to block his motorcade."
You know they are not going to let that happen.
You know, it's very tragic when young people die, in war, in accidents, due to disease, murder, suicide. But, it happens. It's well past time for this woman to move on.org and find some positive things in her life to focus on, like maybe her other children. Nothing anybody does is going to bring her son back, or make her feel "ok" about it. But, I'm sorry, it's not the end of the world.
i think just figured it out, i forgot she was a baby boom type, and then remembered an old professor describe this generation:
"It's all about me!"
This lil episode has nothing to do with her son's death, the war, etc.
It's her opportunity to be on tv.
Her own little reality show.
She can finally feel important, even if only for a few minutes...
It's all about her....
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